Cycling to the polling booth

The Cycle Advocacy Network has released the results of its poll on which candidates are cycle friendly. And again the results are fairly compelling:

The results relied, at least in part, on parties and candidates willingness to engage and respond, so I am sure some parties on that list fared worse than they felt they deserved. But its really about priorities and the Greens have committed to cyclists and cycle friendly politics. About 750,000 of the 1.2 million cyclists in NZ, are voters (That’s a quarter of all voters.) And CAN is now encouraging them all to cycle to their polling booths on Saturday:

Most journeys are very short (1/3 under 2km, 2/3 under 6km), so most of the demand for more roading comes from trips which could be cycled. Providing for cycling is far cheaper than building major new roads.

Can’s monthly newsletter also has some good links on cycling:

University of New South Wales Science Faculty

Local and international research reveals that as cycling participation increases, a cyclist is far less likely to collide with a motor vehicle or suffer injury and death – and what’s true for cyclists is also true for pedestrians. And it’s not simply because there are fewer cars on the roads, but because motorists seem to change their behaviour and drive more safely when they see more cyclists and pedestrians around.

“We have developed a Facebook application called ‘I crossed your path,’ which creates a social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections,”

In fact, some new research shows that high and increasing levels of car dependence actually harms an economy. In a report to the World Bank, researchers from the Institute for Science and Technology Policy (ISTP) in Perth, Australia showed that there are “diseconomies” associated with car use. Auto dependence can drain an economy of its wealth…

9 thoughts on “Cycling to the polling booth”

Nik, Willis St wasn’t wide enough to for cycle tracks back when the WCC refused to allow motorcars to use it’s streets. Moving the shops to make room is the only obvious solution. Do you know how much that will cost?

BP, in morning traffic I can get from one end to the other of Willis st in a third of the time it would take in a car. The only problem is that Willis St has TOO many cyclists between 7:30 and 8:30 on a weekday morning – why? Because there are no cycle lanes, so we are essentially competing for space in the gutter. I will leave you to think of the obvious solution….